Going Solo is the sequel to Boy, the autobiography about Roald Dahl's childhood. Like Boy, Going Solo is an autobiography about Roald Dahl, but unlike Boy, it’s about Roald’s adult life around the time of World War II. This book starts out with Roald, a young British man, going to Dar es Salaam, in Northern Africa, to work for the Shell Oil Company. On the ship he sailed on to get to Dar es Salaam, he meets many strange people, like his cabin mate nicknamed U.N. Savory. In Northern Africa, he also makes many native and British friends. But a few years after moving to Africa, World War II breaks out and Roald is called by Britain to command a division of native African soldiers. After his first enemy engagement as commander (which was a very exciting one), he decided to join the Royal Air Force (RAF), the official name for the British air force. In flight training he flew a biplane (two-winged plane) called a Tiger Moth, and after flight training, he started to fly another biplane called a Gloster Gladiator, a much more powerful plane that had nose-mounted machine guns. But before he actually fought the enemy, on the way to meet up with his squadron, he crashed in the desert. Roald later found out he had been given the wrong coordinates for the airfield where the squadron had been staying. He ran out of fuel while he was circling over the non-existant airfield. When, he crashed his face was smashed in and he was temporarily blinded. A group of British soldiers saw the whole thing from a trench and came to save him. Afterwards, he spent many months in a hospital recovering. When he was finally let out of the hospital he had been staying at, he discovered that his squadron, the 80 Squadron, had moved from the Northern African desert to Greece and had recieved new Hawker Hurricanes, modern monoplanes (single-winged planes) with wing-mounted machine guns. In this plane he had many adventures while fighting against the Germans. He also met many RAF pilots and ground crew.
Rating
This is a good book for anyone who likes Roald Dahl's novels. Even though it's an autobiography, it could hold my attention most of the time. I give this book 9.8 stars out of ten because Roald Dahl is a very good author,had a very interesting life, and met very fascinatning people in the book; although, the pace does slow down too much in some places. Below is a Hawker Hurricane, which I think makes a good book cover because it's one of the planes that Roald Dahl flew in World War II.
click here to go to the Roald Dahl website to learn more about him and his books
click here to go to a biography of Roald Dahl, the author and main character of of Going Solo
click here to learn more about the Hawker Hurricane, one of the planes that Roald Dahl flew
By Ryan D.
Summary
Going Solo is the sequel to Boy, the autobiography about Roald Dahl's childhood. Like Boy, Going Solo is an autobiography about Roald Dahl, but unlike Boy, it’s about Roald’s adult life around the time of World War II. This book starts out with Roald, a young British man, going to Dar es Salaam, in Northern Africa, to work for the Shell Oil Company. On the ship he sailed on to get to Dar es Salaam, he meets many strange people, like his cabin mate nicknamed U.N. Savory. In Northern Africa, he also makes many native and British friends. But a few years after moving to Africa, World War II breaks out and Roald is called by Britain to command a division of native African soldiers. After his first enemy engagement as commander (which was a very exciting one), he decided to join the Royal Air Force (RAF), the official name for the British air force. In flight training he flew a biplane (two-winged plane) called a Tiger Moth, and after flight training, he started to fly another biplane called a Gloster Gladiator, a much more powerful plane that had nose-mounted machine guns. But before he actually fought the enemy, on the way to meet up with his squadron, he crashed in the desert. Roald later found out he had been given the wrong coordinates for the airfield where the squadron had been staying. He ran out of fuel while he was circling over the non-existant airfield. When, he crashed his face was smashed in and he was temporarily blinded. A group of British soldiers saw the whole thing from a trench and came to save him. Afterwards, he spent many months in a hospital recovering. When he was finally let out of the hospital he had been staying at, he discovered that his squadron, the 80 Squadron, had moved from the Northern African desert to Greece and had recieved new Hawker Hurricanes, modern monoplanes (single-winged planes) with wing-mounted machine guns. In this plane he had many adventures while fighting against the Germans. He also met many RAF pilots and ground crew.Rating
This is a good book for anyone who likes Roald Dahl's novels. Even though it's an autobiography, it could hold my attention most of the time. I give this book 9.8 stars out of ten because Roald Dahl is a very good author,had a very interesting life, and met very fascinatning people in the book; although, the pace does slow down too much in some places.click here to go to the Roald Dahl website to learn more about him and his books
click here to go to a biography of Roald Dahl, the author and main character of of Going Solo
click here to learn more about the Hawker Hurricane, one of the planes that Roald Dahl flew